Meghan Daum

Columnist

Meghan Daum was born in California and grew up primarily on the East Coast. She is the author of four books, most recently a collection of original essays, “The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects of Discussion.” Her other books include the cult favorite essay collection “My Misspent Youth,” as well as a novel and a memoir. She is also the editor of “Selfish, Shallow & Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids,” which will be published in the spring of 2015. Daum has written for numerous magazines, including the New Yorker, Harper’s and Vogue, and contributed to the public radio programs “Morning Edition,” “Marketplace” and “This American Life.” Her column has run on the Op-Ed page since 2005. Learn more about her at meghandaum.com.

Recent Articles

It sounds laughable now, but remember back when we thought a black president portended a “post-racial society”? When Barack Obama was elected in 2008, you didn’t have to put that phrase in quotes. It seemed like an entirely plausible concept. Now that Hillary Clinton stands to make history as the...

To people like me — that is, proponents of free expression exasperated by the ideological bullying we see in collegiate life today — trigger warnings are catnip. The absurdity of it all, we cry! The spinelessness of faculty and administrators! The shameless pandering to the gossamer sensibilities...

It’s the final day of women's gymnastics at the Rio Olympics, which means that tomorrow we’ll return to our regularly scheduled schlep through the forces of gravity. The stellar U.S. team, dubbed the Final Five, is led by 19-year-old Simone Biles, who’s won three gold medals and one bronze medal,...

It is a truth universally (if often silently) acknowledged that if you want more Twitter followers you should get into Twitter feuds. This holds especially true for mid- or low-level celebrities, many of whom know that if their follower numbers are falling off, if they’re no longer trending, all...

For the last few years, reasonable people of various ideological leanings have been lamenting the scourge that is the word “problematic.” Cropping up particularly in online discussions about social justice and unacknowledged privilege, “problematic” is sort of like “utilize” for the Smuggy McSanctipants...

A year or so ago, I sat across a dinner table from an optimistic young woman (in her 30s, a millennial) and sternly explained to her why Hillary Clinton, were she to become the Democratic presidential nominee, would never pick Elizabeth Warren for a running mate. I deployed several reasons from my...

In what’s being touted as a turning point in the way the Supreme Court considers the factor of race in the criminal justice system, Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Monday delivered a scathing dissent in Utah vs. Strieff, a 4th Amendment case about police searches. The court ruled in a 5-3 decision that...

By now, there’s no way you’ve missed the story of Brock Turner, a 20-year-old Stanford swimmer and former Olympic hopeful who in January 2015 was discovered (and chased down) by fellow students as he assaulted an unconscious, partially clothed woman behind a dumpster after a fraternity party. In...